A month flew by after Alex’s initial venture into the [Cave of Oblivion].
As days turned into weeks, he fell into a routine: every morning, he would enter the cave, eliminate all the reappearing monsters, and claim his rewards.
The daily grind proved incredibly lucrative.
Each day, Alex earned approximately 50 [Attributes Points Packs] and 35 [Superior Attributes Points Packs].
When converted into raw attribute points, this haul equated to roughly 2,050 points daily, an astonishing rate of growth by any standard.
However, there was a growing issue.
But there was a slight problem: as he didn’t bother using any of the packs to make sure to give them to the girls when his “grinding” ended, he was forced to put them inside of his [Divine Cobra’s Backpack].
Though the problem was that the backpack only had 1,000 slots.
As the days passed, the inevitable happened.
[Backpack is full.]
Alex sighed as he felt the weight of his overstuffed inventory.
Unlike some storage items in the game, carrying a full backpack meant physically bearing its weight.
Every additional item added to the strain.
Despite the discomfort, Alex pushed on, determined to keep grinding.
In his frustration, he decided to try something: using his [Potential Extraction] on the backpack.
“Let’s see if I can evolve this thing,” Alex muttered, channeling his talent.
He didn’t have high hopes.
The system had previously indicated that evolving [Divine] items to [Artifact] was nearly impossible, with only a few items like the [World Map] being exceptions.
Still, it was worth a shot.
But of course, it was a lost cause.
[You cannot evolve this item.]
“Damn it,” Alex grumbled.
He had no choice but to acquire a second backpack now, and so he died after a bit of grinding outside the cave and repeating the same process as before.
His inventory issues, however, weren’t over yet.
On the 25th day of his relentless grind, something unexpected occurred.
Ding!
[10,000/10,000 Extraction Points.]
[Conditions met.]
[Select an effect you want to upgrade.]
Alex’s eyes widened.
After months of accumulating points, he had finally reached the threshold to enhance one of his talent effects.
Excitement surged through him as he brought up the options.
[Talent Effect #1: Upon defeating a monster, you are able to extract an item/attribute/skill/talent/skill points from them, with a 20% chance of the prompt appearing.]
[Perk #1: Description Check, you can now check the descriptions of the items before selecting them.]
[Perk #2: Double Extraction; Every extraction has a 5% chance to trigger the “Double Extraction” perk, meaning you can select two items out of the three available instead of one.]
[Talent Effect #2: Defeating monsters will grant you “Extraction Points”, which you can use later on to enhance your talent or buy items.]
[Talent Effect #3: You can use this to extract the full potential of an item and thus enhance its powers.]
[Perk #1: You can now use your effect on skills to evolve them once every 3 days, for example, you can evolve “Explosive Fireball”, which is from the advanced-tier, to it’s high-tier evolution.]
[Talent Effect #4: Synthesis; Combine items, skills, or abilities to create something stronger]
After a brief moment of consideration, Alex made his decision.
“I want to upgrade the third talent effect: [Potential Extraction],” he declared with a grin.
[Very well.]
A surge of energy coursed through his body as his talent evolved.
Ding!
[You have gained a new perk.]
[Potential Extraction Perk #2: The “evolution” limit has been removed, allowing more items to potentially evolve to “Artifact.” Note that most items still cannot undergo this process.]
“Yes!” Alex shouted, pumping his fist in triumph.
This was precisely the upgrade he needed.
And to be honest, even if he hadn’t gotten that, potential extraction would have surely served him another perk that would be just as good.
[Next Upgrade: 0/10,000 Extraction Points.]
“Oh, seems like there won’t be any more increases in extraction points.”
It was already difficult to get to 10,000, so this talent probably had set 10,000 as the limit.
This was good.
Eager to test his newfound ability, Alex dropped his two backpacks onto the ground.
The first was completely full, while the second had 937 slots occupied.
Together, they contained nearly 2,000 items.
He did try to use [Synthesis] on the two previously, by the way, but it obviously didn’t work.
“Let’s do this,” Alex muttered, focusing on the full backpack.
He activated [Potential Extraction].
Ding!
[You can use “Potential Extraction” on this item.]
“Perfect.”
A radiant light engulfed the backpack as its shape began to change.
Normally, evolving an item through [Potential Extraction] would simply enhance its properties without altering its appearance.
But for items that reached [Artifact] rank, a complete transformation often occurred.
It was similar to how the [World Map] turned into such a powerful item, yet previously it was simply a [Novice Village Map].
When the light faded, Alex blinked in confusion.
The backpack had gone from being roughly the size of a human torso to… a small watch?
“What the…?” Alex muttered, holding the sleek, futuristic-looking device.
It seemed ordinary at first glance, but as he touched it, the watch automatically secured itself around his wrist.
He didn’t even have the time to react as the transfer was instantaneous.
Curious, Alex tapped the watch and checked its status.
[Digital Inventory Watch (Artifact)]
[Can hold up to 10,000 items of any rank. To retrieve an item, simply select it from the watch’s holographic interface.]
A holographic screen materialized above the watch as Alex tapped it.
It displayed a neatly organized inventory system.
Each item had its own icon, description, and quantity listed beneath it.
For example:
[Great Serpent Scales (Epic)]
Below it was a description of the item, and the quantity was: x24.
“Damn.”
The interface also featured a search bar and scrolling function for quick navigation.
“This is incredible,” Alex marveled.
With this watch, he no longer needed to worry about lugging around bulky backpacks.
His inventory management problems were officially over. Your journey continues on empire
And if it truly had 10,000 inventory space, then Alex would probably never fill it up no matter how hard he tried.
After all, already most of the items in the backpack were the [Attributes Points Packs], and remember that he is bound to use them when the grinding ends.
“That’s one problem done with forever,” Alex laughed, “Now I gotta focus on getting stronger.”
Without hesitation, Alex turned to the second backpack, which still contained 937 items.
He dumped its contents onto the ground, creating a massive pile of attribute packs.
“Now, how do I store these…” he wondered aloud.
If he needed to put the attributes one by one, it would surely be annoying.
Even then, Alex crouched down, ready to grab the items and do it manually as it would be useful in the future.
But before he could act, the watch emitted a soft beep.
[937 items detected. Would you like to transfer them to the digital inventory?]
A scanning light passed over the pile, identifying the items.
[629 x Attributes Points Packs]
[308 x Superior Attributes Points Packs]
“Yes, transfer them,” Alex commanded.
The watch responded instantly.
The items shimmered, transforming into streams of light that flowed into the watch.
[Transfer complete. All items have been added to the digital inventory.]
Alex couldn’t help but laugh. “This is going to save so much time.”
With his inventory streamlined, Alex spent the remaining five days gathering more attribute packs from the [Cave of Oblivion].
By the end of the month, his grinding session was complete.
It was time to return to the [Fox Tribe Village].